“Kill All The Lawyers”: Stifling Dissent in Turkey

Turkey’s jailing of writers has received increasing attention in both the Turkish and the international press, enough to force Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to defend the fact that Turkey has more journalists in prison, describing them as “so-called journalists” who “ are actually “police murderers, sexual molesters and supporters of a coup”.

Erdogan’s increasingly surreal rhetoric concerning jailed journalists is probably due to the growing negative reporting on freedom of the press in Turkey. What has received far less attention, however, is the equally worrisome current practice of imprisoning attorneys in Turkey who attempt to defend journalists and others caught in the massive wave of arrests currently underway in Turkey.

“Lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions.”

It is also a convenient way to stifle dissent. In Shakespeare’s Henry the Sixth, part 2, a character says “the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Apparently, the Turkish government has found an alternative they believe to be equally effective.